


A Malfoy By Marriage-Part 2

by thegreatficmaster



Series: A Malfoy By Marriage [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Awkward Tension, Draco Malfoy Being an Asshole, F/M, Fluff, Grief/Mourning, Guilty Draco Malfoy, Loving Marriage, Nightmares, Reader-Insert, Sweet Draco Malfoy, Talking To Dead People, Worried Draco Malfoy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 23:28:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20461280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatficmaster/pseuds/thegreatficmaster
Summary: A shift back to the old Draco Malfoy leaves you angry and frustrated. But you soon realize Draco needs something more than anger in his life.





	A Malfoy By Marriage-Part 2

The past few days had been awful. Ever since your trip to Diagon Alley-and your subsequent run in with Ron-there had been an air of anger and resentment filling the house. Unfortunately, you were the one who had to deal with it.

It seemed, for the couple of months you’d been together-Draco Malfoy had become a polite, sweet, gentle man.

But now he’d reminded you exactly what he was. A spoilt brat who hated when things didn’t go his way.

Clipped answers and mumbles under his breath. Dirty plates piling up in the sink-clothes often going unwashed as he kept to his room all day. Hell, he even seemed to expect you to cook for him.

You could understand maybe he felt guilty-ashamed and embarrassed, being seen by the very people he’d tormented for years, and eventually fought against for a short while.

But he had no right to take any of that out on you. And by the time his attitude had gone on into a second week, you’d had enough.

Draco woke with a gasp, his breath stolen as the cold water soaked into his clothes and bed, his entire body drenched.

Panting, he looked up at you, mouth opening without noise a few times, before he seemed to find himself.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

You glared at him, tempted to throw the damn bucket at his face, but decided against it, leaving without a single word and walking downstairs to the kitchen.

Draco soon entered, having dried himself off and changed into some dry clothes-though his face was flushed red with anger.

The waterlogged clothes sloshed onto the counter when he threw them, splattering water all over the floor.

Neither of you said anything-the entire kitchen filled with an angry silence.

After what seemed like an hour-but was only a few minutes-you finally moved, grabbing a pan and slamming it onto the stove, breakfast being prepared-although there was only one plate.

He watched you cook, watched you plate the food, then sit at the table, back turned to him as you ate away, no care in the world for the husband who was stood there, stomach growling after being shocked awake by a bucketful of freezing cold water.

Draco’s legs were aching by the time you were done, but he held out, not even moving when you had to inch past him to grab some juice.

After finally gulping it down and cleaning up, you made your way to the door, but turned quickly.

“Next time you wanna get pissed-don’t take it out on me, Draco. Mummy might’ve let you get what you want-but I’m not here to raise a kid. Especially not an arrogant little shit like you”.

It’d been almost three days since you drenched Draco-and neither of you had anything to say to the other.

You-of course-had nothing to apologize for.

He was the one being rude. He was the one glaring every chance he got. And he was the one pissing you off to the point you were so tempted to hex him.

Ok-maybe you did throw a bucket of freezing cold water over him. And maybe you took it a little too far by bringing his mother into it.

But-he deserved it all.

You, however, deserved nothing but an apology.

So-you held out. If he wouldn’t even give you a single thanks’, why the hell would you cook for him? Clean for him? Why would you do anything to make his life easy, when he wouldn’t so much as look at you?

He could starve for all you cared.

The sound of whimpering and screaming roused you in the middle of the night, a wave of fear washing over you once you realized what you were hearing.

You didn’t dare breathe-wondering who-or what-was in the house with you.

But as the whimpering grew louder, you found the courage to feel for your new wand, gripping it tight as the tip shone with light.

Slowly and quietly, you made your way out of bed and into the hallway, walking towards the source of the sound.

Down the hallway and to the left-Draco’s room.

His door, which he usually shut and sealed with magic, was left ajar, a whimpering coming from within.

Heart pounding in your chest-throat dry from fear, you steeled your nerves.

No matter how much he angered you-no matter how much you wanted to ignore him for the rest of your lives-you couldn’t just leave him in there on his own.

So-as slowly and quietly as you could-you pushed the door open-wand at the ready to stun the intruder.

But as your eyes adjusted to the newly illuminated room-you realized there was nothing dangerous in here.

There was no burglar. No murderer or crazed psychopath.

The only dangerous thing in the room was in Draco’s mind-who was obviously having a nightmare, his t-shirt drenched in sweat-head thrashing on his pillow as he whimpered and murmured to himself.

From the few words you could decipher-it was clear what he was dreaming of. Lord Voldemort. The deaths he’d witnessed-the things he’d done.

Of course, there was no way anyone could go through so much and sleep soundly-and now it made sense that he sealed his room off every night.

He didn’t want anyone to know what he experienced on a nightly basis-not even you.

But there was no changing what had happened tonight-and despite your anger at him-your body moved of its own volition, sitting on the bed beside him, fingers carding through his drenched hair as you shushed him softly.

He thrashed and murmured for a few more minutes, before your actions seemed to have taken effect.

And soon enough-he calmed down-his cries dying out, his breathing even, before he fell back into a more peaceful sleep than he’d experienced for almost a year.

You’d made sure to sneak out of Draco’s room before he woke up, managing to catch just over an hours’ sleep.

There was no need for him to know you were aware of what he was going through every night. After all-if he performed the task of sealing his room shut every single night-it was evident he didn’t want you knowing.

But for some reason, after what had happened last night-your stupid conscience had decided it couldn’t let you treat Draco the way you had been for the past couple of weeks. 

Which was why-that morning, Draco found himself walking into the kitchen to see a place set for him at the table.

You turned away from the eggs, flashing him a quick smile, before plating your own food and sitting beside him.

He kept his eyes on you as you tucked in-not sure if this was a peace offering or a test.

“Well-you gonna eat? Or you gonna waste my food?” you asked after a minute, watching as he smirked, before digging in too.

For some reason-you never really thought of Draco Malfoy as a competent wizard.

While you were at Hogwarts-you always thought of him as the stuck-up asshole who tormented everyone he could.

But when you ended spending almost half an hour breaking his spells on his door-you realized he was a much more capable wizard than you gave him credit for.

You were more than tired by the time you managed to open his door-and when you stepped inside, there was a surprising silence in the room.

Maybe there was no need for you to stay here tonight. But out of worry, you conjured up a small mattress on his floor.

You’d just about drifted off to sleep, when he began stirring on his bed-the screams and whimpers following soon enough.

You wasted no time in climbing onto his bed, shushing him as you did the night before-somehow managing to fight off his nightmares.

He fell back into a peaceful sleep in a matter of minutes-but once again, you found yourself barely able to rest-too concerned with his nightmares returning once more.

There was just over a week left before you returned to school-and you had one thing you needed to do.

“Draco-I’m going out for the day. You’ll have to make something for yourself tonight. And…I’ll be back late”.

He glanced up at you, seeming nervous to be on his own.

“Want me to come with you?”

You shook your head, grabbing your coat and the bag of coins.

“No-I’ll be fine on my own”.

With a soft smile, you disappeared, leaving Draco alone in the house-with nothing to do but wait.

“He’s strange. Bit moody. Kind of an ass. But…he’s better than he used to be. I think it’s the guilt. And the fact that he’s realized his parents-his family-everyone he was raised around-were totally crazy”.

You picked at the grass, twirling the blades in your finger as you spoke.

“Hell-the guilt’s eating away at him. The way he looked when he saw Harry? I’ve seen Draco Malfoy make First-Years cry. I’ve seen him steal money off kids and everything-but he’s never once looked guilty over any of it. Not until now”.

You let out a sigh-wondering why you were speaking so…hell, why you were speaking about him at all.

“Anyway-I’ve gotta go back to school soon. Honestly, I can’t even imagine it. Dumbledore’s gone. Half the year’s dead. And the rest don’t even want to come back after what happened. Just the thought of going back to normal after what happened is so strange, y’know?”

But you didn’t get an answer. You never would-after all, gravestones couldn’t talk.

“I miss you guys”, you sniffled, holding back the tears as you continued telling them you wanted them back-wishing they’d have been at your wedding-even if it was just a simple binding spell with two witnesses and nothing else.

“You should see the house we’ve got. It’s obviously nowhere near as big as our old manor-but…I like it. It’s cosy”.

You spent the next hour telling your parents the most trivial things that had happened in your life since they’d died.

It was strange-you always loved to argue with your parents-insisting that there were many things they would never need to know-hardly telling them about your friends or how things were going at school.

But now that they were gone-you couldn’t seem to stop talking.

And the setting of the sun was the only thing that forced you to finally get up, promising to visit them soon-before you made your way back to the house.

It seemed the closer you got to the first day of September, the faster the days seemed to pass.

You spent your hours finding tasks to do all around the house-cleaning, decorating, removing the hideous wallpaper the previous owner was deluded enough to put up, and fixing the garden up-all without the use of magic.

After all-there was no point in doing anything if you weren’t going to do it properly.

Draco seemed to have been at your side for all of it-even if you never asked.

One second you’d be lugging around a tub of paint-the next it’d be poured out for you, brushes ready-Draco already getting a start on the painting. Once you’d dug a hole for your flowers-you stood to get them-but found Draco sat beside you on the soil, holding them out for you.

It was strange-but sweet-that he was right there-helping and doing what he could.

And in turn-you’d be by his side every single night-helping fight off the nightmares-and lulling him back to sleep.

His eyes were darting all over-staring at students and parents as they said their goodbyes to each other.

You smiled, taking in the view of the beautiful red train-somehow enjoying the noise and smoke it was billowing out. After the silence of last year-listening to the happy chattering was a relief.

You were so caught up in staring-you hadn’t noticed Draco practically shaking beside you. Not until you’d realized no-one was responding to you as you walked down the platform.

“Draco?”

He seemed a million miles away when you looked at him, eyes glazed over with fear and something you couldn’t quite place.

You walked towards him slowly, whispering your words as softly as you could.

“Draco? You ok? What is it?”

His eyes flickered back to you, a wheeze leaving his mouth instead of words.

You had no idea what was happening, but found yourself taking his hand and dragging him to the side, away from the eyes of the passer-by’s.

“Hey-hey. Come on. Calm down”.

His grip tightened on your hands, eyes shutting as he listened to the sound of your breathing and nothing else.

“There you go. That’s it. Just…calm down. Relax. It’s ok”, you assured, before finding yourself pulling him into a hug-one he surprisingly returned. 

You could see the castle off in the distance as you walked towards the carriages-now suddenly being pulled by what you could only describe as winged, hairless horses who hadn’t eaten in about a year.

“What are those?”

Draco looked at them, remembering their sudden appearance last year. But he had no idea what they were-and hadn’t bothered asking anyone. So-he simply shrugged, clambering into a carriage and holding his hand out to you.

You took it with a smile, when you heard voices behind you.

_“No-Hermione. We can get one of our own”._

_“Ron! We’re sitting with y/n, and that’s final!”_

You looked down at them with a strained smile, Draco shifting uncomfortably beside you.

“Hey, y/n. You mind if we take a seat? All the other carriages are full”.

You knew she was lying-after all, there was an empty carriage beside you. But you understood what she was doing-and you appreciated her effort.

“Uh-yea, it’s fine. Hop in!”

They all climbed on-Hermione first, followed by Ginny, Harry-and finally, a very reluctant Ron.

As the carriages began moving-you once again brought up the topic of the winged creatures pulling the carriages.

“Thestrals”, Harry answered.

“Thestrals? And…they’ve always been pulling the carriages?”

Harry nodded, glaring at Ron who was still muttering curses under his breath.

“Only visible to anyone who sees a death” he murmured.

Draco’s eyes widened, suddenly understanding exactly why he could see these things last year.

The sudden silence that fell lasted the entire way to the castle, not a single person willing to speak after what Harry had said.

There it was. 

Hogwarts.

The castle most students considered a second home.

It was still worn down in some places after the battle-entire towers completely gone, as though they were never there in the first place.

But the magnificence of it hadn’t lessened in anyway. And as you looked up, you found yourself smiling in awe.

The other students had already walked ahead-entering the castle and making their way towards the Great Hall.

But you and Draco both straggled behind, just watching, the silence broken by you a minute later.

“You ok?”

He didn’t say a word-instead taking your hand and smiling, before leading you to the castle-grateful to have you with him.


End file.
